Randy landers, the long-time publisher of Orion Press, has masterminded a fan film that takes place in 2296 aboard the starship Potemkin, an up-rated Constitution III-class (such as the U.S.S. Enterprise-A, NCC-1701-A). They are currently in post production of their first vignette and have a great set! This is from their new Youtube site...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sCMRuzTAlQ

They are looking for cast and crew in the Albany, Georgia area. The Project Potemkin website is a fascinating record of all the hard work they have done.

They've making a brave attempt, but I'm impressed because they've rented a warehouse and are actually building a stage, as opposed to just using the green screen. As I said, if you want to do something like that, throw some money in.

Project: Potemkin is delighted to announce the release of "The Old Guys" -- our first vignette (short film) which answers the question put forward by one of our website visitors: "Where are all the old guys?" It's true that many of our regular cast members are 20 and 30 somethings, so we wrote this short script to explain where all the old guys went... "The Old Guys" (Project: Potemkin)

They've making a brave attempt, but I'm impressed because they've rented a warehouse and are actually building a stage, as opposed to just using the green screen. As I said, if you want to do something like that, throw some money in.

Actually, we built a bridge set on a carport, a ready room set in an oddly shaped area at my place of work, and plan on doing a green screen engine room and sickbay. We're also considering building a full size shuttle craft, but I've got to find the right shaped boat hull for that. It's true that the actual sets cost money, and because of that, we just could not come to terms with a warehouse owner (although we came close twice).

Our editor, Tom Scott, has now received the first four DV tapes safely. These tapes feature footage from our first episode, "The Void." Hopefully we'll be able to see some footage in the coming week. Filming on "The Void" will continue in less than three weeks.

Meanwhile, work continues on "Care for a Lift?" Bill Walker is wearing a lot of hats for that production. We hope this episode will be ready for a Christmas debut!

Work has begun on developing a digital Sickbay. Although this digital set will not be used often, it'll be nice to have. Construction for a small green screen area is slated t begin after Christmas.

Lastly, Bob Reed is working on the DVD download page, and it looks awesome. Hope to have this feature implemented very soon!

Just watched "The Old Guys..." and I'm vastly impressed! If this is where you are starting from, then we've got a lot to look forward to! Randy, I hope you bring the Old Guys back at least for a guest spot in the future. It was a relaxed but expressive performance, neither over-acted nor self-conscious. My favourite bit?

Spoiler

"I broke his chair!"

I actually cringed when he did that, seeing what he had done to that great prop!

Just watched "The Old Guys..." and I'm vastly impressed! If this is where you are starting from, then we've got a lot to look forward to! Randy, I hope you bring the Old Guys back at least for a guest spot in the future. It was a relaxed but expressive performance, neither over-acted nor self-conscious. My favourite bit?

Spoiler

"I broke his chair!"

I actually cringed when he did that, seeing what he had done to that great prop!

Glad you liked it. The piece in that bit looks very impressive, and is quite comfortable, but it's definitely not meant for everyone.

Spoiler

Heavy folks like myself just can't sit in it!

"The Old Guys" was basically shot as a test film, and we saw things (such as glare off the console appliques) that needed to be fixed. For "The Void," which is currently shooting, we've replaced the high gloss appliques with matte finished vinyl. It went on easier, and definitely eliminates the gloss problem. We're still getting an occasional glare off the gorilla tape, but it's a tremendous improvement.

Two of the "Old Guys" return for "Care for a Lift?" in another comic test film which was used to test our turbolift facade and a secondary camera. And then they'll be permanently retired.

We are transitioning our website today; viewers/visitors may suffer proper access today and tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenience, but it'll be worth the result. Once complete, you'll see that Bob Reed has done an excellent job redesigning the website for us.

The Potemkin website is again operational, but some web content may have been moved. If you encounter any difficulties, just let us know. We should have the whole thing completely restored in the next day or two.

What's going on now...1) We're continuing work on our website, including a download page which will allow you to access the files to create your own DVD for personal use. We'll also be including the DVD cover in PDF format and a PDF of the movie poster as well. We're very pleased with the new design of the website, and hope that you'll let us know what you think of it once it's finished.

2) Thursday, December 16th - Saturday, December 18th, and Monday, December 20th, the remaining scenes for "The Void" will be shot at our bridge and ready room sets in Albany, Georgia. All cast members are expected to be there for much of the time. We're hoping that we can wrap production by the end of that weekend. If you would like to visit the set during filming, please contact Ricky Thompson to make the necessary arrangements.

3) Last month, November 18th - 22nd, the teaser, most of Act I and much of Act II were shot at our bridge set in Albany, Georgia. All cast members were present, and the footage looks excellent! My thanks to the cast and crew for their outstanding work! We'll be reposting a webpage on "Filming 'The Void." Editor Tom Scott now has the footage and will begin the process of assembling it over the next few months.

4) Sunday evening, November 14th 2010, the first Project: Potemkin vignette, "The Old Guys," was posted to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook, and linked to on this website, the TrekBBS, StarshipFarragut.com, StarTrekPhase2.com, FanFilms.net and TrekUnited.com (who have created a forum for Project: Potemkin). We hope that everyone will enjoy this comic little film as much as we did putting it together for you. My thanks to the cast and production crew for their invaluable contributions to this episode. To date, over 600 viewers have seen it. You can view the video at: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=PWU1b171n4s and http://vimeo.com/16837307

5) Bill Walker is still hard at work on our second vignette, "Care for a Lift?" which we still believe will make its debut before Christmas 2010. Bill is presently working on the special effects for the episode. Tony Lunn will be providing the music for this production.

6) We're announcing our first ten productions which will comprise our first season: seven short vignettes, three full-length episodes. You can review the details here: Planned Vignettes & Episodes. Believe it or not, we may add a few more vignettes to the production schedule and rearrange the production order, depending upon the availability of the cast.

7) Casting is now almost complete (well, at least for the time being--we expect cast members to come and go to a degree because of their school/work schedules). Updates to the cast page have been posted to the revised website. Randy Landers and Linda Marcusky are expecting to meet with a potential cast member in the coming weeks, and an announcement is expected to be made shortly thereafter

8) We've gotten seven special effects sequences from Jon Carling for the upcoming episode, "The Void." These SPFX actually take up 12 of the 167 storyboard blocks for that episode. We also finished the Klingon second-unit filming already, so an additional 6 storyboard blocks are actually already "in the can," so to speak. What's coming up...1) We're expecting to complete the filming of "The Void" on December 16th - 18th in about two weeks. We may also shoot some footage for an upcoming vignette or two, time permitting.

2) We'll also be shooting a several vignettes over the course of the next few months. Stay tuned for details!

Randy, I'm exhausted just reading what you are doing! As an audio buff my little ears pricked up when I read (ok, mixed metaphor!) that "Tony Lunn will be providing the music for this production" Will this be original? Live musicians or digital? Not that I've got anything against canon Trek music, but its always good to hear the interpretations that amateur musicians apply to the genre. As a fan film that is very careful about sticking to canon I'm assuming your musical director will have something totally "in-character"for you?

Randy, I'm exhausted just reading what you are doing! As an audio buff my little ears pricked up when I read (ok, mixed metaphor!) that "Tony Lunn will be providing the music for this production" Will this be original? Live musicians or digital? Not that I've got anything against canon Trek music, but its always good to hear the interpretations that amateur musicians apply to the genre. As a fan film that is very careful about sticking to canon I'm assuming your musical director will have something totally "in-character"for you?

We are giving a variety of musicians an opportunity to score this vignette, that episode, this production, etc. Andrew Morgan Smith created the Potemkin theme, and it's up to folks like Tony Lunn, Steve Gallant, and others to either use that as a basis or go off with their own direction. So what will Tony do with it? Your guess is as good as mine! Steve incorporated some of Andrew's theme into the opening. Tony may do the same, or something completely different.

Looking forward to "Care for a Lift?" Cheers K

So am I! I'm serving as Executive Producer for this episode, as well as writer and one of the stars. However, Bill Walker is in complete charge of the production. I have given him five suggested tweaks, and told him use them if he wants, and if not, that's HIS call. He's sound effects, visual effects, graphic artist and voiceover actor for this particular production, and I'm looking forward to what he does with it.

Do me a favor, though? Could you embed the video for "The Old Guys" in that thread for me? I'd appreciate it! I couldn't figure out how.

Project: Potemkin is pleased to announce the addition of Renda Carr as Doctor Maura Drake, the chief medical officer of the starship Potemkin. We look forward to shooting her introductory vignette in the coming months!

Thursday evening, filming re-commences on "The Void," our first full-length episode. Filming is slated to last three days, with possible additional footage shot on Monday. Wish us luck! It's FREEZING outside (and an uncomfortable 50F on the set).

Filming is going very well right now, and we hope to finish filming "The Void" this weekend.

While we're filming, Bob Reed's been very busy on the website. Be sure and take a look at the EPISODES page which now has an added feature. If you click on the drive icon (next to the YouTube and Vimeo icons), it'll open up a window and all the files available for the episode can be downloaded, including AVI, WMV, MPG, ISO of the episode, and PDFs of the Cover Art, Movie Poster, and Script. He's done a wonderful job with the site, and continues to work to restore all the material from the original site in the new form.

Filming is going very well right now, and we hope to finish filming "The Void" this weekend.

While we're filming, Bob Reed's been very busy on the website. Be sure and take a look at the EPISODES page which now has an added feature. If you click on the drive icon (next to the YouTube and Vimeo icons), it'll open up a window and all the files available for the episode can be downloaded, including AVI, WMV, MPG, ISO of the episode, and PDFs of the Cover Art, Movie Poster, and Script. He's done a wonderful job with the site, and continues to work to restore all the material from the original site in the new form.

Good to hear that production is going well for you! Its great to see that there are so many choices of format for downloading as wellmpg should work well for mobile viewing... ISO, doesn't that make it so that you can view on your TV DVD player? You'd be able to pick up on all the hard work that has gone into the show then!

Good to hear that production is going well for you! Its great to see that there are so many choices of format for downloading as wellmpg should work well for mobile viewing... ISO, doesn't that make it so that you can view on your TV DVD player? You'd be able to pick up on all the hard work that has gone into the show then!

Yes, Kirok, the ISO file is for burning a DVD. We think our episodes should be viewable in a variety of formats, for laptops, mobile devices, and DVD players. We've also added a DVD cover, a movie poster and the script for "The Old Guys" in the EPISODES page.

We finished up ACT II last night, and even shot the first page of ACT III of "The Void." It's only seven pages long and includes SPFX sequences and reaction shots, so we should be able to finish it up this evening. Once that's done, we plan on shooting the EPILOGUE on Wednesday at our Ready Room set.

All in all, the shoot's going well, and there may even be a quick tour of the Potemkin from two of the Georgia Southwestern drama students who shot their own behind the scenes video last night while we were setting up.